Recently, I had yet another discussion with a relative concerning religion. Specifically, he contended that everything he believed was completely true and unfalsifiable while everything I believed was in error.
After pointing out to him the incorrect Watchtower teaching of a global flood, and that Jerusalem was not destroyed in 607 b.c., he invited me to find faith in the bible (and, by extension, the Watchtower Society) by invoking the power of prophecy. My cousin asked about the bible prophecy in which it was foretold that Babylon would be uninhabited. Today, he said, it’s not inhabited…viola!…the bible is inspired by God.
This is one of about ten prophecies that are touted out by Witnesses in an effort to prove the divinity of the bible. Though my cousin couldn’t recall where in the bible this was located, he was talking about Isaiah 13:19-22.
I explained to my cousin that this prophecy – if it was even written when the Watchtower Society claims it was written (doubtful) – isn’t really that amazing anyway. I said: “That’s like if I prophecy that New York City will be uninhabited in the year 2808. It probably will be! That doesn’t mean I’m a prophet!”
But he said: “No, it’s more like if you said New York won’t be inhabited five years from now and then your prophecy comes true.”
Like most Witnesses, my cousin hereby revealed that he doesn’t even know the very teachings he has dedicated his life to. The Watchtower claims Isaiah wrote his book around the year 800 b.c. And I informed my cousin that the Apostle Peter wrote the book 1 Peter while in Babylon some 900 years later – thereby proving it was still inhabited. My cousin doubted my words, but I gave him a specific Watchtower reference that would show I was correct.
“In fact,” I added, “Babylon was still inhabited 1,200 years after that prophecy.” I told him it was very likely that most cities now in existence would be gone 1,200 years from now. He disagreed, stating that most cities last for a long, long time. Babylon, he asserted, is highly unusual.
Again, he’s basing his faith (and entire way of life) around something he has not taken the time to investigate. Memphis, Carthage, Nineveh, Troy, Ur, Kish, Herculaneum, Et-tell (better known as Ai) are all cities that, in their day, were booming metropolises and, now, are completely sans citizens.
And here’s a whole article about ghost towns – most of which were inhabited 100 years ago.
And here’s a city that has gone from booming to uninhabited in my own lifetime.
And here’s the real kicker…part of the prophecy stipulated that Babylon would never be inhabited again, but it may become a city in the near future!
Even the Watchtower Society is worried about this development. Back in 1957, they confidently asserted : “Many cities are conquered and destroyed and yet are rebuilt. But not so with Babylon” (W 9/15/57, page 555).
Forty years later, they changed their tune: “Any restoration of Babylon as a tourist attraction might lure visitors, but Babylon’s ‘progeny and posterity’ are gone forever” (A book for all people, 1997, page 29). Hmm…so when the bible said it would be uninhabited, I guess that was with the one caveat that it may be a tourist attraction one day. Using this reasoning, I’d like to visit that uninhabited ghost town known as Las Vegas one day.
Now VB, do you really think that your so-called “logic” makes any sense? I mean, what’s next? Do we doubt God’s promise to give the promised land to the Jewish people in peace and prosperity forever? Do we doubt Jesus’ promise to return shortly?
Puh-lease.
I seriously doubt there will be any cities 800 years from now. It is very likely this planet will be uninhabitable by (intelligent?)forms of life as we know it today…
Mike-
I hadn’t even thought of approaching the issue from that viewpoint, but that’s a good point. Since EVERY city will eventually be uninhabited at some point, no deity is needed to vaguely state that some metropolis will die out some time in the future.